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Sol's Sub-Par Series Creation Advice
Congratulations. You've done it. You've read through Cat's writing guides and even Mack 10. You now consider yourself an adept wordsmith, with the ability to conjure up the most magnificent of tales. You're now waiting for your hot posse of women to arrive. Or you don't, since you can just write them into existence. The abilities and potential of your writing are limitless, you think, staring out your window with your keyboard in hand. You don't even have to look at the screen anymore, you think, typing up a storm of goaijsdfposhfoapsfhapoufhaspfohas It's a masterpiece. You've done it. You've made a good BTFF series. But why don't many people read it? Sure, you get a few comments on your episodes. You've got a decent fan list, maybe a few names. Your mom commends you for your effort and leaves gold stars on your door to show her support. Sure, these are all great, but they're no substitute for actual food dammit mom having commited fans. Where can you get some of those? Can you hire them off the internet like dad did with mom? No, you think, realizing something even better. You need a less-than sub-par guide! Yes, another one, even though we already have several hundred! You could Google them, but no! You've stumbled upon Sol's! Yes, Sol's! Didn't he do that one thing that one time? Sol 10? And then got full of himself, spent his money on cocaine, and died overdosed in Tijuana in a bed full of prostitutes? Yes! That was him! He's clearly successful! Not just anyone can do cocaine and hire prostitutes. Let's take a good look in Santa's book, shall we? The most important things are highlighted right here: *'Ben 10 is a science-fiction story. Science-fiction and fantasy don't mesh very well and unless you can explain it (it doesn't need to be that in-depth), you're gonna have problems.' *'Write what you know. ' **'That being in mind, don't write about what you THINK you know.' *'Edgy is not better.' **'Use character deaths wisely.' *'Omit unneeded information. Instead, use imagery and descriptions.' **'If your lore isn't important for the plot, it's "Trivia" material.' *'Use sensible but catchy names.' *'It's better to use things of your own creation rather than things of other creation.' *'Red herrings and misinformation save your plot.' *'FORESHADOW' Plot Settings You've decided to set your story in the wonderful city of your real-life hometown, Gramercy Park. Because of that, you won't have to explain much- WRONG. No one knows shit about Gramercy Park. Is it near the coast? Is it in the forest? Is there a zoo? What's the quality of living? Does it have a ghetto? Only you know, and you've neglected to tell us. Shitty Twists and Red Herrings CaT told you twists were good but bad, and you didn't understand. So you decided your twist would be to have no twists at all. You're now writing Power Rangers, congratulations. Seriously. Twists are needed or else your writing is shit. But how? you ask, as you begin to add more twists to your writing. They're not bad. You plan to have one of your protagonists turns on the hero and becomes an antihero, and it turns out your villain has a tragic backstory. Those are good, honestly. I like those. But you need to make sure it's not a shitty twist. What's a shitty twist, you ask? Well, I'll tell you Sol's guides for twisting: *FORESHADOW. A good twist has readers realize, post-twist, that this was going to happen all along. That's cool. Chekhov's Guns Cliches: Good or Bad? Characters You have your plot. It's a fool-proof setup. It's a masterpiece. So many subtle nuances your readers will love and twists that complement the writing. But the problem is no one can seem to relate to your character Johnny Werbenhelterjinski. Naming A big part in writing is naming. There are good names, and there are bad names. Good names would be something like Horizons' Porter or Simien 10's Zynon, to name a few. They're memorable and aren't something you find on the street everyday, but they're made of simple nouns and aren't too hard to spell/pronounce. Good advice would be to stick to your alphabet. But what does this mean, Sol!? Well, the alphabet has 26 characters. Chances are you won't have 26 characters. Try to give each one of your central characters a name with a different letter. If you have five main characters, and those include a John and a Jacob, chances are your audience will confuse John and Jacob. If you do have more than 26 characters, it's obviously okay to use the same letter over again. Just make sure you don't have two characters going by the same name. For example: You only have 30 characters, but two "Roberts"? Another piece of advice that most authors use, including famed ASOIAF (later adapted into Game of Thrones) author George R. R. Martin, is to simply browse through lists of baby's names, which can be found all over the internet like some sort of sick Egyptian plague. If you still have trouble with names, try using this. Muh Symbolism Aliens You've created your character, Danny Dorito, and you're good with that. But he needs aliens for his Omnitrix. Species and Planets So, you've made all of your aliens. But you need some good planets and species. So you know what to do. You open up Google Translate and type some shit into Latin or something. Badaboom, dun. Except everyone does this and it's getting boring. Sure, it's cool and all, but it's very lacking in depth. Wow, your fire alien's species is actually Spanish for "warm man"? That's not cool at all, that's lazy. Let's take a look at some finer examples of aliens on this wiki. Look at Eelectricity. His species, the Teslamorpha, is named after Nikolai Tesla and the scientific eel name. That's cool. It might not sound exotic, but it definitely evokes a feeling reminiscent of the original Ben 10 alien names. There's also Mind Matter. Chemicon X might not be a reference to anything, but damn does it sound cool. Character Death Killing in the Name of... Edge I do this a lot in Sol 10. During his first transformation, Sol kills an entire crowd of Mexicans with flying Foo Fighter saw discs. I'm a hypocrite. But that's not really what this section is about. When I talk about killing in the name of edge, I'm talking about... Hm, Danny Dorito needs a reason to go after the villain Trashmaster 8000, doesn't he? That's simple. Trashmaster8000 kills his mom/girlfriend/little siblings/any other mentor figure in his life. So you kill them off in the first five minutes in the episode. That's killing in the name of edge. It's fine to have your villains kill civilians. It's realistic and expected. But if you want us to feel sympathy for Danny Dorito and the Dorito household in general, you have to give us more time to get to know the Dorito family. You can't just have a few scenes and bam Dorito mom is dead. You should depict the family bonds between Danny and his mother, or else you're just killing in the name of edge. The Afterlife But wait, you think. If my characters die, then they go to heaven, right? And maybe they might show up as ghosts, too, right? Science-fiction and fantasy don't mesh very well But ghosts aren't fantasy! They're real life! ... I don't even feel like writing a response to that. Unless you can make a contrived reason why your characters appear in the afterlife (see: JJBA and Stands got soul, an afterlife for fun like in DBZ that actually ties into the plot), don't try to include them. Star Wars did this kinda well with force ghosts. What I'm trying to say here, is unless the afterlife has a role in your story (like DBZ) or is connected to the main power of your characters (JJBA Stands, force ghosts), the afterlife doesn't have to be in your story. Sure, I'm a hypocrite for putting this down here since I'm planning to use ghosts in Sol 10. But you know what? Ghosts are a shitty plot device, unless you're Shakespeare or some shit. Bringing Characters Back to Life and Cheap Deaths Oh, no, you think. You accidentally killed off my favorite character, Danny Dorito, to elicit some feels from the audience. No biggie, right? You can just revive him. Except once you kill off a character, the shock value of their death is reduced to a minimum. They've already died. If you revive them, and kill them again, don't expect any feels because they'll expect that character to be revived or have already come to terms with that character's death. Writing, Dialogs, and Narration Script-Writing Script format is easy but it's not that in-depth. Sorry if that's your favorite method, I'm just not a fan. More Varied Words Makes Good Here's an example: "My name is Danny Dorito," he says and walks forward. Let's add the spice of variety. "My name's Danny Dorito," the boy tells him, a smile on his face. He steps forward, confidently. The second one is definitely preferrable. It shows your character's personality and it's definitely less bland. No One Wants Your Lore Exactly what it says on the tin. No one wants your lore. You're probably the only one who cares about it. Don't count on people being interested in your lore. Why? Here's an example (Inferior Henchman Jones): Oh. Danny Dorito has the Omnitrix. (Trashmaster 8000): The Omnitrix. Yes, created by the Galvonian Breathmorphs during the Third Hitleronian War, fought between the Gee-Gons and the Freddy Fazboys over the Diamondite mines on the planet Nooncarias. The war was preceded by the bloody conflicts of Rathjars in the Reit-Fluen System. (Inferior Henchman Jones): And it seems he's used it to transform into a Sui-Flob Reigermorph, from the planet Thessalonika. They have been fighting a war against the Five Council for the last few millenia, and have been losing due to the Five Council's superior Pakachewy tanks. Okay, that was overexaggerated, but you get it. No one cares about those names but you. You only care about them because you created it. It doesn't tie into the plot much, so omit it. Here's a "fixed version": (Inferior Henchman Jones): Master, Danny Dorito has the Omnitrix! (Trashmaster 8000): The Omnitrix? I remember... Created by the Galvonian Breathmorphs. (note to self to finish) The F-Bomb You've been told people like mature, relatable characters. So, let's add some swears! Everybody swears. That leads to scenes like this: (Danny Dorito): Alright, fuck this shit. I'm done. I'm motherfucking done. (Dorito Mom): Danny, I'm just asking you to do the dishes. (Danny Dorito): Alright, fuck you. Fuck you I won't do what you tell me. I'm a motherfucking hero, ghost mom. That doesn't make Danny Dorito seem cooler, it makes him seem like an immature prick. So let me explain swears to you. Swearing lots shows your character's immature and innability to handle emotions. Swearing when times are tough shows that they're human. That being said, you still need to pick the "most elegant" swears. Which sounds better? (Danny Dorito): My motherfucking mom just died. Or... (Danny Dorito): Oh shit... My mom just died. Definitely the second. You can't just drop any swear anymore. As bizarre as it sounds, experiment until you find an elegant swear. Misinformation Will Save Your Characters This kinda ties in to characters, but... Whatever. This is along the same lines of No One Wants Your Lore. Your characters don't exist to pour all of this exposition down our throats. They're not constantly spewing knowledge. They're people, not textbooks. And sometimes, people are wrong. This is what makes twists and stuff good. No one knows everything. Maybe your character heard that the big villain had a spaceship shaped like an axe. Your characters go off in search of the axe ship, but unfortunately your character forgot where it was. That makes them relatable. Or, your characters find the axe ship, but it's not the villain's ship. It's somebody elses. Misinformation makes your plots interesting. Magic I'll start off with my opinions, once again. Magic is shit You recoil at that statement. Harry Potter is one of the most beloved franchises of all time. This guy truly has no idea what he's writing. Magic is shit when done wrong. Okay, that makes sense. But why? Ben 10 has magic. It's okay, right? No, it's not. Magic is shit when done wrong. If you're writing a Ben 10 fan fiction, chances are you're writing science-fiction. Science-fiction and fantasy do not mesh What about Star Wars? This Sol guy doesn't know much about anything, you laugh. 'Science-fiction and fantasy do not mesh very well. ' Oh... But why? Let's make a table contrasting the two. That points out what I'm trying to say here. Magic is generally never explained and just charted up to "its magical pixie dust lmao" or "god powers lmao".